In a distributed system for editing digital media, it is useful to have an index that indicates which media is accessible to users of the system. Such indexing typically is performed by identifying media files among the computer data files that are accessible to the system. Any identified media files then are indexed. The index is usually accessed by requesting some identified source material, and the media file containing a version of the source material is provided. A user's application typically requests the source, and the best quality version of the source material available in the system is provided to the user.